During COVID-19 worldwide outbreak, virus-related fake news spread as fast as the pandemic itself.

COVID-19 hoaxes are incredibly dangerous because, as some have reported,  “[…] include what seems like it comes from valid advice from medical professionals but turns out to be erroneous and in some cases dangerously bad”.

For instance, in Iran, more than 700 people died of alcoholic intoxication falsely believing that high amount of methanol in the blood could protect the organism from the virus.

In another notorious severe case of misinformation, public outrage coming from the scientific community  condemned the words of the US president, randomly suggesting to inject bleach as treatment against COVID-19.

The same Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security – one of the most reliable source of data related to COVID-19 global outbreak, as well as one of the leading scientific centers in the fight of COVID-19 – has been forced to make a public announcement warning about totally inaccurate reports and recommendations published on its behalf, but with absolutely no connections with its staff.

In Italy, the very first EU epicentre of the outbreak, from the period that goes from January to April 2020, of all COVID-19-related posts shared across Social Media, an average of 5.5% were totally/partially scientifically inaccurate.

Even if people are perfectly aware of the fake-news phenomenon – in another survey, the Italian public resulted very skeptical about the most reliable COVID-19 news source, with nearly 8 people out of 10 believing Facebook to be the major responsible for boosting non-accurate information – they might not be consistently trained to spot one.

Twitter has its great share of fault too.

According to Bot Sentinel, the world largest data set of BOTs activities online, only on March 26, in the timespan of 24h, BOT have been accountable for 1,627 misleading virus-related tweets.

For instance, take a look at the following thread*:

The statement that you see above has been published by official public healthcare authorities. Soon after, here is what happens:

Sara and Sharon’s comments are quite disturbing for a simple reason: they mine the legitimateness and reliability of experts who devoted their life to safeguard citizens’ health and well-being.

What is even more creepier is that none of Sara, Sharon and Sara’s mom actually exist: what you just saw perfectly depicts a typical BOT interference, aimed to generate in the unsuspecting reader a sense of loss and confusion.

How can we be so sure that Sara and Sharon are just digital fictions?

After a bit of training, BOTs are very easy to spot:

At some point, the situation was so severe that Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube decide to commit themselves to a joint action against the spreading of COVID-19 misinformation.

On the other front, these platforms will guarantee for their users only the most reliable and scientifically-accurate information, leading the provision of updated and in-real-time data.

The UNESCO took  the “social pandemic” effect very seriously:

“UNESCO is also working to help people become more critical of what is being presented to them online and elsewhere, as fact, so that they are less likely to believe, and spread, falsehoods. The agency is using the hashtags #ThinkBeforeSharing, #ThinkBeforeClicking, and #ShareKnowledge, and promoting the view that the rights to freedom of expression and access to information are the best remedies to the dangers of disinformation”.

Same has been done by the World Health Organisation.

You might notice that, Google engine will always direct you to the official WHO’s website for any COVID-19 related search.

This started to happen only recently, when Google and WHO’s executive sat down together to discuss about effective solutions to contain the “social pandemic” and assure for Web users the safest digital environment.

The Mythbusters section of the WHO’s Website lists 28 common COVID-19 misinformation.

Each one of them is scientifically fact-checked and “busted”: if you have any concern about what you saw around the internet, please consider to visit the website and share the content with your acquaintances.